


detours you didn't mean to take

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Graduation Arc, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 20:31:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18763666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Freaking out at Sarutobi Hiruzen would be a bad idea for a number of reasons, so Kakashi selects a slightly better target.





	detours you didn't mean to take

**Author's Note:**

  * For [forluck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/forluck/gifts).



Shikaku is already dreaming of the dinner Yoshino is sure to be making tonight — gyoza to celebrate the twins’ graduation from the academy — when Hatake Kakashi appears in his office. 

Nara Shikaku is not a man given to hyperbole. “Appears” is exactly the right word. Kakashi does not climb in through the window while Shikaku’s back is turned or shunshin in through the half-open door. One moment he is not there, and then he is. 

He looks terrible. And he’s holding a file, which must be his most recent team assignment. The Hokage had probably delayed handing them out specifically to give Kakashi less time to try and undo what’s in that file. 

“I’m not getting you out of the team assignment,” Shikaku says, leaning back in his chair, settling in for what will probably be a really annoying conversation. He wonders how things went with the Hokage. Probably not well, considering that Kakashi is _here_ , but it’s pretty flattering that Kakashi thinks Shikaku could undo what Sarutobi Hiruzen wants done. 

(He could, actually — but he won’t. It’s not worth it, not when Shikaku knows Kakashi well enough to know he’ll do his best by the first team that manages to pass that bell test of his.) 

“I know,” Kakashi says. 

“I’m not giving you a mission so you can put off meeting them, either,” Shikaku says. “My daughter would—” 

Kakashi makes a strangled sound. 

Shikaku lifts his eyebrows at him. 

“‘Your daughter’,” Kakashi repeats, like such a thing is incomprehensible. 

“You didn’t even look at the team assignment?” 

_That’s_ out of character. No matter how lazy and disinterested Kakashi appears to be, the man would never turn down information. 

“I came straight here,” Kakashi says. He opens the file and flicks through it quickly. As he reads he becomes more and more tense. 

“You didn’t even speak to Hokage-sama about it first?” Shikaku asks. 

Kakashi looks up from the file and ignores Shikaku’s question. Instead, he demands: “What about Haruno Sakura?” 

His tone of voice sets Shikaku on edge. It’s panicked rather than threatening, but panicked is almost worse because it’s less predictable and because Shikaku has never heard Hatake Kakashi panic before. 

Shikaku keeps his voice as even and low as he can without sliding too far away from his normal pace and volume of speech. “She’s assigned to Takahiro,” he says, with hopefully no indication that he finds Kakashi’s question both bizarre and alarming. “I didn’t know you had an interest in teaching her. Shikako-chan—” It seems important to remind Kakashi that Shikako is, in fact, a _child_. ”—beat her out in physical skills, and you know how the top student calculations are weighted.” 

Kakashi swallows. He nods. He’s definitely recognized that Shikaku has broken out his ‘soothing panicked jōnin voice’, unfortunately, but he _is_ trying to calm down. Not that it seems to be working. 

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Kakashi says. 

That statement hangs in the air. 

“I’ve had her for twelve years, now.” The same information should be in the file Kakashi is holding, but who knows how well he’d processed whatever he’d managed to read. 

“What about... Shikamaru?” 

“He’ll be on Asuma’s team, with Inoichi and Chōza’s kids.” And because it seems like Kakashi needs more information to feel in control of whatever situation he thinks he’s in the middle of, Shikaku adds, “They’re twins.” 

Kakashi slumps down into the nearest chair, the one Shikaku keeps for visitors and Genin Corps administrative assistants. 

“Shikaku,” he says, “you’re not supposed to have twins. I’m really sure you’ve had just Shikamaru for the past—” He breaks off and then grimances. “—okay, obviously you know how many kids you have. But I’ve... lived this day before. Only Haruno Sakura was on my team. Shikamaru was an only child. I didn’t have this pounding headache.” 

It’s quite the claim. Shikaku leans forward and rests his elbows on the edge of his desk. It seems much more likely that Kakashi is finally having the breakdown everyone thought he’d have 12 years ago, possibly brought on by being given a team he can’t refuse, but that’s not the kind of thing you just accuse a jōnin of without backup and maybe a sedative. 

“Tell me about what you remember, then,” Shikaku suggests. 

“Tsunade and I were in the Senju vault...” Kakashi trails off. 

“Tsunade isn’t even in the village.” 

Kakashi waves a hand carelessly. “She’ll come back. We were looking for one of the Nidaime’s weapons. To use against the edo tensei. And... I must have sprung a trap. With the Sharingan. Now I’m five years in the past. You have an extra kid. My _team_ is all wrong.” 

Shikaku gets the impression that this list is in ascending order of importance. 

“There’s no good argument to swap Sakura and Shikako,” Shikaku says. “Unless you want to come clean to the Hokage?” 

The look at that Kakashi levels at Shikaku is amused. “Would _you?_ ” he asks, like he already knows the answer. 

The answer is absolutely not, of course. Shikaku would never dream of telling Sarutobi Hiruzen anything like that. But the question sits uncomfortably in the air between them, balanced on the edge of what is, essentially, treason. 

“I’ll tell the Godaime, when we get her to take the hat,” Kakashi goes on. “And Sakura...” 

He opens the file again. To look at the information on Shikako, probably. 

“...well,” Kakashi admits, “she was actually a _terrible_ genin. And I never really taught her anything. But Takahiro will send her to the Genin Corps and we can’t let Yūhi get his hands on her, he’ll ruin her. I’ll take care of it.” 

That’s an ominous statement if Shikaku ever heard one, but not actually the top of Shikaku’s list of priorities. This is definitely a situation that calls for Inoichi, if there ever was one, and Shikaku really can’t put it off any longer. He packs what little is left on his desk away quickly and then stands slowly, not wanting to startle Kakashi. 

He must stand a little _too_ slowly, though, because Kakashi blinks at him and then says, “I’m not going to _stab you_ ,” with all the offense of a civilian housewife who’s had her dusting criticized. 

“Mm,” Shikaku says, noncommittally. “I was going to have a drink with Inoichi before going home, if you wanted to join me.” Yoshino will understand him being late, and Tomomi will forgive him for dropping by and stealing Inoichi away for awhile from Ino’s celebration. 

Kakashi sighs. “That might be for the best,” he says, and stands as well. “I’ll meet you there.” 

Then he’s gone just as simply as he’d appeared, and Shikaku is left to seal up his office and hope that Kakashi will really be at the Yamanaka compound by the time Shikaku arrives. 


End file.
